Why I defrauded my company N22m- Salesman

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a salesman, who allegedly alleging diverted his company, Pharmacy Plus,  drugs valued at over N22 million.

The salesman, Mr. James Babalola, 43, working with Pharmacy Plus, was alleged by the police to have been diverting drugs for six years until his eventual arrest.

When he was finally caught, the amount of goods he had allegedly diverted was placed at N22million.

He confessed to have used the money to acquire property, lived large and pampered his wife. The police had since confiscated one of the properties acquired by him.

A police source said: “The suspect would have continued with the crime, if not that the pharmaceutical company decided to audit the account. His modus operandi is to use a pseudo third party name to collect the goods, but he’s actually the person collecting the goods. He also opened a third party bank account.”

Narrating his own side of the story, Babalola said: “I’m here because I owe Pharmacy Plus money. I have told them to give me time. I promise to refund them. I have been working for the company for six years. They used to give me goods to sell. I’m a salesman. We sell drugs. I have been intercepting the delivery of the goods over the years with the aid of a pseudo third-party account. I was only caught last month after the company’s account was audited.”

Babalola said that he used to earn N80, 000 monthly as a salesman and had an official car. He, however, seemed to be quite unsatisfied with his salary as he tried to give his reason for defrauding his company.

He said: “The reason I did it was because of properties. I needed more properties.”

The suspect said that his wife, Funke, had often complained about the way he spent money.

He said: “Funke had been suspecting and complaining that I was spending beyond my monthly salary, but she didn’t stop accepting varieties of items I bought for her. I convinced her to believe the money was legit. She didn’t know anything about any of this. I’m ashamed of myself. I regret everything.”